“Talk about support!” laughed Merry. “Why, you’re all marvels to-day!”
“The tender youth killed two hits in that inning,” said Ready.
Old Joe simply grunted at Dick, saying:
“Much good! Do him some more.”
Frank came to bat first, and Batch resolved to strike Merry out. This, however, was not an easy thing to do, and Frank found the ball for a safe single past second.
“Now, we’re off!” cried Carson. “We have started the ball. We’ll keep it up.”
Browning came up to strike. As he did so, Frank touched his cap twice. Bruce opened and closed his fingers on the bat-handle twice, and thus a signal passed between them, which meant that Merry would try to steal second on the second ball pitched.
The first one was wide, and the umpire called it a ball. The next was fairly over, but Bruce swung with the deliberate intention of missing it and bewildering the catcher. He swung hard and reeled back a little, dropping his bat.
Merry was streaking it to second, and the catcher was baffled so that he could not get the throw away in time to catch him. This was team-work, and it counted in giving Merry second.